We did the famous walking in the rain today. We have been doing the Seaside route with one day walking on the N13, but today the Camino decided we're doing the historical Coastal way just by default. As we headed out from the albergue we followed the arrows, crossed a bridge and thought we were heading towards the ferry. But at the end of the bridge we read the road sign going to Valenca, which is in the Coastal Route, anyway, we decided that we're keeping on this road. And besides, it was raining and unforeseen circumstances led us here, so we'll take it. And then we turned into the Camino and saw that it's a red carpet! At a fork in the road, we took the road well travelled!
Everything is perfect on this road until you cross over a railway line. Then there are more than 3 different routes that we tumbled down and up. The historic route took us winding up and down steep hills and rolling left and right along the N13. I got so fed up of it that we jumped down from the Camino when wee saw a couple of local residents take a shortcut down and so we also slid down to the N13 which would take us straight into Vila Nova de Cerveira now only 4km away.
I've been struggling along with pain levels from 5 to 8 today, and on reaching the hostel all I wanted was a hot shower, to do my laundry and go to sleep. However, my 13 year old was jumping up and down excitedly wanting to go kayaking! And so here I was grumpy and aching on a river in a kayak with him!
As we walked home we talked about our walk tomorrow which will be along the river. Dinner was a pizza and crepe for dessert, a meal which we rated at 3, 3/10, not 3 Michelin stars.
In Portugal the restaurants don't serve dinner before 7pm and it can mean that you'll miss out on a fullsome meal if you happen to miss lunch time and can't stay awake until 7pm.
We met 3 interesting people yesterday. One girl was from Czechoslovakia who has done the Camino 4 times. She walked into the albergue with us, sat down on the bunk bed, contemplated a little and then she left! Then there was David from Germany who has been walking the Camino for 5 years and has done it 8 times. He said the Camino isn't meant to be painful. Over the years he's realised that 15 to 18km is all one needs to do a day. He also said this is his last time for he must now go home and do the Camino of life, which he says it's the real Camino and that too isn't meant to be difficult. And we were reunited to the very first pilgrim we met in Matosinhos, Vincente, who is on his second Camino and he was finding this one rather long and difficult. He said the Camino isn't meant to be hard. Here there are too many options and that's making the Camino harder when you end up on a path that's winding and making it unpredictable. It is stressful.
It got me thinking how the girl showed me that she's not willing to stay in a place she's not happy with. Got me thinking about how the hardest things in life needn't be so difficult. And really got me digging into my own compassion for myself.
Ok Valenca tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment